Last June 8, Joshua Decena, an Industrial Engineer who is currently working as a Marketing Manager, shared his expertise as the facilitator of the workshop he entitled “Everything, Design”.
Industrial Engineers use their analytical and technical skills to design systems or use technology to improve the ways organizations work. If you like planning, being efficient, understanding how things work together, and figuring out how it can be better, Industrial Engineering might be a path that would interest you!
Engr. Decena shared about how things around us are designed and taught a simple tool they use to identify problems in a system: the Ishikawa Diagram or the “Fishbone Diagram”. This visual method, also known as a cause-and-effect diagram, provides a systemic framework for exploring all possible causes of a problem. It's a useful tool for problem-solving, especially for issues with multiple potential causes.
Whether it’s to figure out big world problems like climate change or discuss the design of products you design, this method helps you analyze what is going wrong. You can use this problem-solving activity in product development, troubleshooting processes, and root cause analysis.
Want to try it out? Let’s try analyzing the root cause of traffic congestion here in the Philippines. Traffic congestion has become one of the major problems in the Philippines particularly in dense urban areas like Metro Manila and Metro Cebu.
Using the Ishikawa diagram, do you think you can analyze the root cause of this growing problem? Here are some steps to help you use the Ishikawa or fishbone diagram to think about this :
Fishbone diagram elements
Head: this is where you record the problem or outcome you are analyzing
Backbone: provides a way to connect all other bones to the head
Bones: represents all the various causes that could be leading to the main problem
To create a fishbone diagram, you can either draw it by hand or use an online template.
1. Start by identifying the issue or problem at the "head" of the fish, and summarize it in a few words or a small phrase.
2. Draw a long arrow as the backbone of the fish.
3. From the backbone, draw the first "bones" as small diagonal lines going from right to left. These represent the overarching causes of your problem.
4. Branch off from each of these first bones, creating smaller bones that contain additional information and necessary details.
5. Once completed, your fishbone diagram will provide a comprehensive overview of the potential root causes of the issue, enabling you to prioritize or determine the most plausible causes.
You can try filling one using the blank fishbone diagram templates found in https://www.scribbr.com/research-process/fishbone-diagram/
Share your thoughts and what you found out about our traffic situation using this method below!
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